The News Tribune in Tacoma finished a two-day series yesterday on BCTI, the Business Computer Training Institute, a now defunct trade school based in Gig Harbor, Wash., that is now the subject of a class-action lawsuit in Washington involving more than 400 ex-students.

The Oregonian broke the story about BCTI more than two years ago, first reporting Oregon regulators' inquiry into allegations surrounding the for-profit trade school, which operated campuses in Beaverton, Salem and Vancouver (See the attached July 2004 story). Then, in November 2004 (also attached), we recounted the experiences of dozens of students and workers at the school, including students with developmental disabilities who had been recruited by BCTI and left there with more than $10,000 federal loan debt and no computer-related job. Three months ago (attached), we detailed one of two occasions in which the school escaped a threatened shutdown by the U.S. Department of Education in the 1990s.

As Tacoma's series points out, the entire affair exposes the holes in how for-profit schools are regulated and serves as a cautionary tale for consumers.